The China Experience: Logistics
Dean McNeil stated earlier that we needed our passports to apply for our Visas on October 1st to allow the time it takes for them to process. Being that it was already September 28th, and the students hadn’t been instructed on where to get the Visa application or to whom we needed to deliver the passports, I emailed him immediately. It was my understanding that someone would be coming up from Springfield (or Jana in Peoria) to collect our passports and assist us in filling out the Visa paperwork. I was mistaken. Now I’m trying to figure out this application and I hope that I’m doing it correctly! I did email the person who will be processing our Visas with some questions. I’m not even sure the complete name or contact info for any of our Chinese contacts and wish that we’d had more help in this arena. It seems (again) a little bit unorganized and last-minute.
I had requested the new syllabus with updated flight information, but I’m not seeing it in the revised copy circa September 28th. Wondering why the people flying back from Beijing on United are not included in the last item, as we wil NOT be flying back from Dalian and need ground transportation. If it is indeed going to be set up for us, I would like to see it on the syllabus for reassurance.
Tickets are purchased, passport, Visa application (with Rachael’s help) and extra photo (came with passport, needed for Visa application; others may have to get new passport photos and at short notice) hopefully to be in to Jana in the Peoria office by October 1st.
Just be ready for a little frustration on the student end, everyone. Previous cohorts didn’t even know until a month before the exact dates of the trip, so I still consider our cohort lucky.
EDIT: Rachael and Jana have stated that certain information on the Visa application will be filled out by the processors. Regular Visas are what we are applying for (Question 1.9), and the processors have our Chinese contact information (Question 4.7-4.10). Also, we need to submit our travel itinerary from TravNET or a copy of our E-Ticket as well as the Visa application materials.
